Author: Shani Harris

Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody – The BRWC Review. By Shani Harris.

There have been many documentaries and television projects released on the life and tragic death of Whitney Houston.  The beautiful popstar who was nicknamed “The Voice” passed away ten years ago. She earned numerous accolades in various industries including 6 Grammy Awards, 2 Emmy Awards, 16 Billboard Music Awards and 22 American Music Awards. Kasi Lemmons told me she was handpicked by producer Clive Davis to direct the biopic after she made Harriet starring Cynthia Erivo who earned an Oscar nomination. Whitney Houston is played by newcomer  and BAFTA Award winning actress Naomi Ackie who hails from East London. I spoke with Kasi Lemmons who told me that Clive Davis wanted Naomi to portray the music icon that he mentored for years. Lemmons also informed me that Clive Davis gave her extensive notes and that the dialogue in the script was shaped by conversations Davis said he personally witnessed while in the room with Whitney Houston. Academy Award nominated Bohemian Rhapsody screenwriter Anthony McCarten crafted the screenplay, which highlights select moments of the singer’s life that were sanctioned by the estate to make the final cut. 

I grew up as a superfan of Whitney Houston who was a rarity in the music industry. She was a beautiful and regal Black woman who had the voice of an angel and reflected a standard of beauty that was never exhaulted before. It was a breath of fresh air that paved the way for other musical divas like Janet Jackson, Beyonce and Rihanna to shine bright. Diana Ross and Tina Turner also experienced success in their careers. Tina Turner’s struggles were turned into an Oscar nominated performance by Angela Bassett in the musical biopic What’s Love Got To Do With It.  That film was full of heartbreak but it gave us hope, because the singer made it out of the darkness and survived her obstacles to resurrect her life from the shambles. 

Sadly, we all know the outcome of the story with Whitney Houston. She died at 48 years old after losing her battle with drug addiction and being found face down after drowning in a bathtub. This film does not present the glossy treatment of Baz Luhrmann’s production of Elvis that manifested his larger than life mythology, without the unfavorable imagery of a bloated entertainer, who overindulged in peanut butter and banana sandwiches. “I wanted to focus on her vast achievements, McCarten told The Guardian.  Some of the re-enactments and flashbacks which are chosen sometimes feel like copy and paste dramatizations of select events.

We are introduced to Whitney as a teenager who loves singing in the church.  She is not yet in the business and sometimes joins her mom on stage. Her mother Cissy Houston (Tamara Tunie) is a veteran of the biz who never gained mega success. She is steely and commanding while guiding her daughter and literally driving the tempo of her debut audition performance.

Whitney meets her friend Robyn Crawford (Nafessa Williams) while they are both growing up as teenagers in New Jersey. The have an instant connection and become friends. The first half of the film focuses on their blossming friendship and romance that causes conflict for Whitney’s family and puts her career in jeopardy.  Robyn Crawford wrote a book about her relationship with Whitney Houston called A Song For You: My Life with Whitney that chronicled their shortlived romance. Lemmons considered Whitney to be “fluid” while the screenwriter labeled her “bi-curious.”

Whitney gets discovered by Clive Davis (Stanley Tucci) who shapes her image from finding songs for her to sing to the public persona as America’s sweetheart that the world falls in love with.  She catapults up the charts and conducts a radio interview where she is being criticized for appealing to a white audience and neglecting her Black fanbase. “A common criticism of you is your music isn’t Black enough.” A radio host states while confronting the songstress. “Who said that? That’s just bull and it makes me angry actually. It’s hateful and uninformed…” Whitney chides as she confronts the commentator. Her infamous Wendy Williams and  Diane Sawyer interviews are never alluded to in the film which actually pinpointed pivotal turning points in her life and career. This critique by a generic host is a substitute for all the unfavorable media attention she received throughout her life. 

This was a way to show that despite the fact that Whitney was making historic strides in music. She was being labeled as a more generic pop artist than an R&B singer. Naomi Ackie sounds like Whitney Houston when she speaks and has a decent singing voice to do ad libs and riffs. The naturally gap toothed actress admitted to Graham Norton that she had to wear fake prosthetic teeth for her performance that took some getting used to. I felt the spirit of Whitney Houston, but my heart kept yearning for glimpses of her beautiful imagery to guide me through the narrative. Whitney continues to keep Robyn as a friend and hires her to work on her team to help her as an assistant. She tells her father, John Houston (Clarke Peters) about her plans. She turned him into her manager and head of a management company called Nippy Inc. that was titled after her childhood nickname.

Whitney is confronted by his disapproval about their relationship with the insight that she needs to date men or the rumors about their romance will hurt her brand. Whitney takes his advice and begins to embark on dating a series of various men including singing companion Jermaine Jackson which ends in a breakup. She also allegedly had a romance with Eddie Murphy that is not shown.

Whitney meets Bobby Brown (Ashton Sanders) when she attends the Soul Train Awards.  Their meet cute is funny to witness onscreen. Whitney gets upset by her lukewarm reception at the ceremony. Bobby is seated in front of her and she keeps accidentally smacking him in the head with her purse. He gives her a pep talk and she gives him her number. The pair immediately become a couple, but her friend Robyn doesn’t like the fact that Whitney is sleeping with men. They talk about how Bobby is unfaithful with different girlfriends. Whitney tries to reassure her friend that she has a plan because they aren’t getting married any time soon. But Bobby throws a curveball and fast tracks their relationship. He pops the question in a limo so now she is getting married. Moonlight star Sanders does a good job playing her paramour. He is a bit awkward when he is first introduced as Brown.  He seems preoccupied with sucking on his protruding prosthetic teeth like they are chicklets that gave me a chuckle. 

He eventually finds his stride as the character. I didn’t initially see the resemblance, but there were some scenes when Ashton is dressed up as Bobby Brown that I did a double take. Honestly I felt at times like he looked more like the R&B singer than Ackie looked like Whitney Houston. 

We have now entered the Bobby and Whitney era. Clive Davis informs Whitney that Kevin Costner has personally selected her to co-star with him in a Hollywood movie called The Bodyguard. Davis makes the suggestion that Houston should postpone her marriage because Kevin Costner wants to work with her. The actor made a teary eyed revelation about how much he wanted to be along side the singer at her funeral. “At the height of her fame as a singer I asked her to be my co-star in a movie called The Bodyguard.  I thought she was the perfect choice. But the red flags came out immediately. Maybe I should rethink this a bit. I was reminded that this would be her first acting role. We could also think about another singer was a suggestion. Maybe somebody white…The day of the test came and I went into the trailer after the hair and makeup people were done. Whitney was scared. Argueably the biggest popstar in the world wasn’t sure if she was good enough. She didn’t think she looked right. There were a thousand things to her that seemed wrong. I held her hand and told her she looked beautiful. I told her that I would be with her every step of the way. That everyone wanted her to succeed. But I could still feel the doubt. I wanted to tell her that the game was rigged. That I didn’t care how the test went. That she could fall down and start speaking in tongues. That somehow I would find a way to explain it as an extraordinary acting choice and we could expect more to follow. And gee weren’t we lucky to have her.”

The shoot on The Bodyguard set is filmed with footage of Kevin Costner. There is also a re-creation of Whitney recording the music video and listening to the Dolly Parton song that she would re-record into the smash hit I Will Always Love You.  Whitney has a setback while filming and suffers a miscarriage. She eventually marries Bobby Brown and that causes a permanent rift with Robyn. The couple eventually have their only child Bobbi Kristina, who is shown growing up at varies ages, but her mysterious death in a similar manner as her mother is never mentioned. The film unfolds with a series of highs and lows from Whitney’s life.  Whitney was the soundtrack for many people’s lives so it brings back memories to see her sing her epic rendition of The Star Spangled Banner before her downfall.  That scene was edited with b-roll of fans listening and jets overhead after a prerelease clip was trolled by fans of the singer who felt like Ackie wasn’t emoting enough during the performance.

The inevitable begins to happen as Whitney sinks deeper into drug addiction where it has an effect on her stage performances. I remember getting a ticket to a live performance and Whitney never showed up. Fans were told to return to the same arena months later to see her show. All of the concert performances in the movie don’t reflect diverse audiences and are mainly comprised as white attendees as extras which was not her full fanbase. Perhaps that was an aesthetic choice to have the film appeal to a crossover moviegoing crowd. 

There was a surprise cameo by The Inspection director Elegance Bratton giving Whitney Houston a pep talk about how much she was loved that I found to be unexpected. McCarten told the Guardian that he refused to view her as a tragic figure. “If you view a life as flowers, at one end of the scale, and a pile of shit, on the other, which is there more weight to?” He said. “Whitney’s life had vastly, vastly more flowers.”  I found it odd that the screenwriter was mentioning crafting a story about Whitney’s life and excrement in the same sentence, but it felt like he didn’t always handle her image with care. There was a scene where Whitney was hauled off in handcuffs like a criminal being carted off to jail. It is revealed she is actually in rehab. I found it odd that we were presented with optics of the singer like she was doing something wrong when she was forced into the backseat of a car with her wrists in shackles. 

This latest incarnation of Whitney Houston’s life was given the two hour treatment. I kept yearning for more after watching Naomi Ackie lipsync along in music videos and stage performances. This painful saga unfolds like a Shakespearean play with the personal sex life of Clive Davis inserted into a chunk of the dynamics, when it was Whitney’s story to tell. She can no longer shape her own narrative. Her memorable Oprah Winfrey comeback interview is referenced with archival footage of Oprah cheering her on from a tiny screen. We know the unfortunate final ending of this chapter.

Fans of the late singer will be entertained by the nostalgic musical trip down memory lane as an attempt to reconnect with their favorite songs by the legend. I was still left a bit puzzled about the timing of a long musical mini concert that is being performed at the end of the film. It was set up earlier during a conversation with her music director. There is a flashback to her singing at the American Music Awards in 1994. It is referred to as the “impossible medley” of I Love You, Porgy and I Am Telling You from Dream Girls. This was supposed to highlight the prowess of Whitney’s vocal range. However the visuals presented a distraction by putting focus on a tangential love triangle with Robyn gazing longingly at Whitney from backstage while Bobby Brown was in front of the stage in the audience sitting with their daughter Bobbi Kristina. If there was anytime to give Whitney a moment to shine it would have been this one as the immense realization of what we have lost sinks in. 

Whitney was a divine light that was dimmed and extinguished far too soon. This cinematic tribute skimmed through her life, however, I did not have the same emotional connection to Ackie’s rendition that I had when Angela Bassett commanded the screen as Tina Turner. Bassett was the perfect conduit for Tina because I felt her ethos, connected with her pain and was brought on a full journey. I was happy to see Tina when she was presented in concert footage. This movie ended with a similar tribute montage to the real Whitney Houston, but this time I felt like I was truly seeing her for the first time after two hours.  This is fine if you want to escape into the mirage of Whitney, like you’re watching a shallow holographic image projected on the big screen. It will never be a substitute for the diva we all loved and will miss forever. 

The film Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody was good. Our beloved Whitney Houston was great.

Grade : B

Whitney Houston : I Wanna Dance With Somebody opens in theaters on December 23^rd.

Babylon: The BRWC Review. By Shani Harris.

La La Land helmer Damien Chazelle was hailed as the wunderkind of Hollywood when his beloved musical became a blockbuster. He also made history as the youngest director to sweep the major categories at the Academy Awards to take home six Oscars including the trophy for Best Director at the tender age of 32. His crowd pleaser was a love letter to Hollywood about an aspiring actress named Mia (Emma Stone) who falls in love with jazz musician Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) while both of them are pursuing their big dreams. Chazelle infuses the film with a childlike optimism about the world including Busby Berkeley inspired musical dance sequences paired with the possibility that fame and fortune can easily happen.

Chazelle first made a splash in the industry with his indie movie Whiplash about a brash music instructor played by J.K. Simmons. Simmons earned an Academy Award nomination for his role as a foul mouthed professor, but it was the success of La La Land that catapulted Chazelle into the mainstream. 

Babylon explores some of the same themes of La La Land. But the director has ripped off the glossy veneer and pulls the audience into the seedy under belly of the business. 

“This movie is a hate letter to Hollywood on some level. But a love letter to movies, cinema and to the art form itself.” Chazelle explained in an interview. “You kind of have to have both polls mutually in evidence. That was the guiding principle for this movie. Almost in every frame if not every scene. It was going to be the highest of the highs paired with the lowest of the lows. The most beautiful people with the ugliest behavior. The most beautiful extravagant settings paired with he grimiest, grittiest dirt under the fingernails sweat, blood and tears viscerality.  It was important for me to capture the full gamut. The full meal that I think Hollywood especially in this time was when there weren’t really the rules and regulations we have today.  There was this kind of Wild West unhinged freedom to it that led to alot of great art and also led to alot of wrecked lives and ruined people. Trying to kind of grasp both in one film was the key.”

Babylon is set in the silent film era during the roaring 1920’s. Margot Robbie portrays aspiring actress Nellie LaRoy who will do anything to achieve fame on the silver screen. She meets Manny Torres (Diego Calva) who has traveled from Mexico and performs menial tasks including handling an elephant as he tries to break through in the biz. The movie is not for the faint of heart and has a non-stop graphic depiction of debauchery. The opening scenes have us taken through a raging orgiastic sex party with topless women, golden showers, giant phallic shaped toys, a drugged out chicken and tons of cocaine. Brad Pitt’s movie star Jack Conrad is also at the bash after breaking up with his wife as he partakes in the coke fueled excess around him. He is the biggest matinee idol of the era who is a composite of Clark Gable and Douglas Fairbanks. 

Nellie LaRoy gets her big break after she wins a role once it is discovered that an actress at the party has suffered an accidental overdose. Her scene on set seals the deal for her to be a silent era starlet once she shows her skills to act and improvise her way through different scenarios while crying on cue. Manny is our guide as we navigate through this unhinged world. Diego Calva’s acting skills are limited to mainly a bunch of open mouthed reaction shots. He stumbles around in each frame like an extra from Triangle of Sadness, while professing his love and desire to Nelly who ignores his advances. This literally shows her lack of interest in Manny because she will pretty much hook up with anything that moves and even has a bit too much fun mounting an inanimate ice sculpture in the midst of celebrating her burgeoning success.

Nellie becomes a massive sex symbol at the height of her stardom on par with Clara Bow. There are many easter eggs buried in the film with a few tributes to Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard. Jack Conrad does a bit of foreshadowing about the moralistic depravity of tinseltown as he floats face down on the surface of his swimming pool like Joe Gillis after he was killed by Norma Desmond. Director Spike Jonze also invokes the classic with his Erich von Stronheim like cameo as a sunlight obsessed German filmmaker who is trying to capture magic hour. Jean Smart plays Elinor St. John inspired by gossip columnist Hedda Hopper who gives juicy commentary.  Jack Conrad tells Elinor. “When I first moved to LA. Do you know what all the signs on all the doors read? No actors or dogs allowed. I changed that.” This confession actually has a kernel of truth about the era. But the fact is signs really did exist around the country that banned Black people, Jewish people, Mexican people and other people of color from entering establishments and locations.  It was off putting that this line was used in jest as a way to create sympathy for a character while not acknowledging the real origin of this type of discrimination.

The shock and awe ride on the bumpy rollercoaster of this narrative seems inspired by The Wolf of Wall Street, La Dolce Vita and The Great Gatsby. The Wolf of Wall Street had Leonardo DiCaprio skillfully acting his way through crass over the top scenes under the direction of Martin Scorsese that still managed to sometimes put a mirror up to the hilarity of what is unfolding.  Babylon had a massive 80 million dollar production with a three hour running time, but it only manages to make us feel like we are trapped in a Last Days of Sodom and Gomorrah remake without a skeleton key to escape. 

The most problematic storylines involve secondary roles portrayed by people of color that are underdeveloped and one dimensional. Lady Fa Zhu ( Li Jun Li) based on Anna May Wong is introduced performing a remixed re-enactment of Marlene Dietrich’s famous role in Morocco. A tuxedo clad Lady Fa sings an original song called My Girl’s Pussy by Justin Hurwitz to a crowd of onlookers before planting a kiss on Kaia Gerber.  She is shown achieving success during the era and even collaborating on the writing process. The fact is that Anna May Wong had bigger obstacles to overcome according to Paramount executive A.C. Lyles in Anna May Wong in Her Own Words. “I think the best word for Anna May Wong is she earned her position. She earned it the hard way.  That’s why she survived as long as she did. She came into a community that wasn’t striving. Let’s find a Chinese lady and make her a star. Anna May Wong created a desire for Paramount to have a Chinese leading lady. She did it herself. She wanted to eclipse that image of just being the Chinese, the Asian, the exotic female lady. She wanted to become an actress where her ethnicity had nothing to do with it. 

When it came to playing roles that were written for white females. She could not be considered. It’s very hard for Hollywood audiences to relate to someone who they know is not going to get the guy. She can not have the kind of love interest that ultimately would give her stardom.” 

Another issue with Babylon is that the Manny Torres character is utilized to perpetuate racial and colorist plot points. Once news spreads that talkies will be the biggest thing to change the film industry Manny sneaks into a packed movie theater to watch The Jazz Singer in 1927. Al Jolsen performs  in the role wearing blackface as he prefers to sing Mammy, Sonny Boy and other popular jazz music instead of his family’s traditional Jewish prayers. Babylon does not include any clips of Jolsen singing with his face covered in black paint which is an insulting form of minstrel mockery used to ridicule Black people. But there is an earlier scene that is quickly flashed on a massive set during the silent era where two white background actors are covered in head to toe full body blackface paint dressed as tribal Africans who are wrestling. 

The sound era brings many problems for Nellie LaRoy and Jack Conrad. There are scenarios where Nellie fumbles lines with her New Jersey accent, can’t hit her mark and has issues with microphone placement. The Artist and Singing in the Rain dealt with similar dilemmas on screen. Manny finds a way to turn Black jazz trumpet player Sidney Palmer ( Jovan Adepo ) into a movie star once sound is a vital component of entertainment. One day at the height of Sidney’s fame he is filming on set with a high beam spotlight pointed at his face. Manny is called in to help fix an issue. He is told by someone connected with the production that they want to show the film in the South but it is hard to tell Sidney is Black because of the white light hitting his face. Manny tells Sidney to rub blackface cork on his skin to resolve the issue. Sidney complies and performs as a Black man in blackface which was troubling to witness. The derogatory minstrel show trope was perpetuated as a plot twist by a Black artist but the historic footage of a white artist who used the practice to achieve fame was not included.

Leonardo DiCaprio’s friends Lukas Haas (George Munn) and Tobey Maguire ( James McKay) have small roles in the movie. But they fall flat like Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt and the rest of the ensemble who strike one note while over acting in the film. Margot Robbie getting bitten by a snake and being resurrected like Mia Wallace in Pulp Fiction with a girl on girl make out scene couldn’t even save this flick.

It was baffling that archival footage was added at the tail end of the movie to try and forge a narrative connection to the classic cinematic works of Singing in the Rain and Avatar.  Babylon is a messy montage full of elephant feces and projectile vomiting that wants to be a cinematic masterpiece, but fails to project a cohesive vision about the cautionary pitfalls of showbiz.

Grade: D

Babylon opens in theaters on Dec. 23^rd. 

Emancipation: Another Review. By Shani Harris.

Will Smith stars in Emancipation as a Black slave who was famously known around the country as “whipped Peter” after he went viral. The horrific image of Peter’s whipped and keloid scarred back during a medical examination became a symbol of the atrocities of slavery and rallying cry in support of the Abolitionist movement in the North. The historic portrait was taken by William McPherson and J. Oliver was called “The Scourged Back”. The picture was published in Harper’s Magazine and sparked backlash after it circulated worldwide. It has been documented that Gordon aka Peter confessed that he had been brutally beaten by a plantation overseer and whipped into a coma that left him bed ridden for months.

The title of the film is based on the Emancipation Proclamation which President Abraham Lincoln signed in 1893 ordering that slaves were free. The goal of the film is to focus on how it inspired this true story of an enslaved man who fled to freedom. It is produced by Smith and directed by legendary helmer Antoine Fuqua who collaborated with Denzel Washington for Training Day. 

Will Smith explained that his reason for taking the role was to delve deeper into the life of this man. “What interested me most was trying to understand the mind of Peter. How does a man maintain his humanity and grow in circumstances where most of us would crumble? What can give a
person the fortitude and endurance to overcome malevolence? For Peter, I felt it came down to the strength of his spiritual belief and that was something I wanted to explore.”

The audience is introduced to Peter during his life on a Louisiana plantation. He is a religious man who prays with his wife and children, while performing a spiritual libation ritual in their small shack. We see the tenderness of this family who belive in God and are doing their best to survive and stay together despite the shackles on their bodies. Marriage amongst slaves was illegal, because they were considered human chattel, who were put up for sale, abused and auctioned off. It was also illegal for enslaved people to read or write, so it took longer for them to get the news that they were legally free. 

Oscar winner Will Smith had a daunting task to bring the audience along on his epic journey through these hardships. I had seen the shocking picture of Peter my whole life, but never knew his name or his story. I would compare Emancipation to historic films like Glory, 12 Years A Slave and Saving Private Ryan that are inspired by true events. These films depict the epic scope and scale of a period production. I recently spoke to director Steve McQueen about his film 12 Years A Slave, which he explained instantly sold over a million dvds due to the interest in the subject matter based on the memoirs of  former slave Solomon Northrup. Emancipation makes that same impact with creating a first person experience about the cruelty of being enslaved. 

Smith adds a depth and insight into the soul of an individual in bondage who will do whatever he can to escape and protect his family. The very first image you see in the film is of Peter and his family,” Fuqua explains. “From that point on, the heartbeat of the film is always his need to get back to those he loves. When you’re telling such a vast story, mixing elements of history, emotion, and adventure, the key is to know where you’re going. No matter what, I always knew Peter was trying to get home. That drove us both.”

Newcomer Charmaine Bingwa portrays Peter’s steadfast wife who remains on the planation after he is sold and taken away. Peter is forced to work on building a railroad for a Confederate army labor camp, where he witnesses abuse at the hands of white overseers on the site. One enslaved man drops dead from exhaustion, while another is branded with a hot iron by a villanous slave catcher named Jim Fassle (Ben Foster). 

The barrier to the compound is surrounded by the decapitated heads of slaves who fled as an intimidation tactic along with the swinging bodies of traitors wrapped around nooses.  One day Peter overhears a conversation that President Lincoln had declared a Proclamation freeing the slaves. Peter feels that this news gives him renewed hope for his future. He flees the camp and heads toward the dangerous Louisiana swamps with the ultimate goal of joining the Lincoln army to gain his freedom.  

Following Peter along on his path feels like a nightmare that is impossible to escape from as he rubs his body with onions and does anything he can to evade capture.  He even has to battle an alligator with the visual imagery harkoning back to an iconic quote from Muhammad Ali who Smith once portrayed.  The famous boxer once rhymed. “I done wrestled with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale; handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail; only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick; I’m so mean I make medicine sick.” 

Peter overcomes many treacherous obstacles to become the hero of his own story with bounty hunters on his trail. This is more than a movie; it is a visually immersive history lesson that everyone should see to understand that reverberations from the ills of the past including the remnants of the confederacy, shall not shatter the present. 

Robert Richardson’s cinematography transports the audience back to that era to experience the emotions of a fugitive slave calling out the words, “I Am A Man” to a group of slave catchers, which is the rallying cry that inspired the modern day “Black Lives Matter Movement.”  Will Smith’s embodiment of the his character in Emancipation is a moving tribute to the life and legacy of an enslaved man that no one truly knew about until now. I was moved to tears watching this dramatic saga unfold like the pages of a visual history book and you will  too.

Grade: A

Emancipation is streaming now on Apple TV+

Avatar: The Way Of Water – The BRWC Review. By Shani Harris.

James Cameron brings fans back to the alien planet of Pandora with his new sequel Avatar:The Way of Water. Avatar became a global blockbuster at the boxoffice thirteen years ago. The special effects and immersive 3D experience brought  audiences flocking into theaters to watch the stunning CGI film.  We are introduced to Marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) in the first film.  He is a human who is given the mission to use an expensive Avatar body to bond with the natives. A corporation called RDA is financing deforrestation to mine for a valuable substance called unobtainium. Jake works as a representative for the colonizers and reports to RDA security leader Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) with information to aid in the destruction of the planet.

Sully gets aid from a team of scientists let by botanist Dr. Grace Augustine played by Sigourney Weaver.  He meets Na’vi warrior Neytiri ( Zoe Saldana) who introduces Jake to the traditions and spiritual beliefs of the Omanticaya clan. Grace used to run a school that taught English to the Na’vi. In a deleted backstory Neytiri had a sister who was killed by the “sky people” aka colonizers when she tried to protest and attacked a bulldozer. Grace was banned by the tribes, but she is welcomed back after Jake becomes a member after peforming a ceremonial ritual.

Jake falls in love with Neytiri and they become monogamous mates for life according to the law of the land. He changes his loyalty to the people of Pandora and uses his military expertise to fight the evil RDA forces. Colonel Quaritch gets killed by Neytiri in the first movie when he takes a couple of poison arrows to the chest. Jake is paralyzed in his human form and must rely on a wheelchair to get around. Grace gets shot and while she is dying the tribe prays to their deity Eywa. They try to transfer her spirit from her human body to her Avatar body but she is too week  and passes away.  Jake participates in the same ritual at the end of the first film as his frail human form is placed beside his Avatar. He is stronger than Grace and the first film ends with his Avatar opening his eyes to show that the body transfer process was successful. Everyone connected with RDA is kicked off the planet and forced to return to Earth except for a select few from the science team.

Avatar: The Way of Water begins years in the future as Jake and Neytiri are together as husband and wife. They are living a happy life on the land, while raising their kids and still finding ways to have date nights. Three of their children are biological offspring and two are adopted.  Their large brood is filled with oldest son Neteyam (Jamie Flatters), Lo’ak (Britian Dalton), Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), Miles aka Spider (Jack Champion) and Tuktirey (Trinity Bliss). All of their children have been raised with a warrior spirit and trained in military combat including their adopted human son Spider who has dreads and paints himself blue to fit in with his family. 

The paternity of Spider and Kiri push the plot forward and drive the story. It is revealed in the beginning of this new chapter that Spider is Colonel Quaritch’s son who was stuck on Pandora because he was too young to travel back to Earth when the sky people were expelled. Kiri was born after her mother Dr. Grace Augustine’s Avatar mysteriously becomes pregnant while floating in the amniotic fluid of her containment tank. There are some uncomfortable jokes about her origin story. However, it is possible that she is the reincarnation of Grace’s spirt after the Eywa prayer ritual conducted in the first film. 

Jake and Neytiri assume they are safe but the sky people with RDA have returned under the leadership of Colonel Ardmore (Eddie Falco). Their technology has advanced so they can build their developments faster to colonize Pandora. Colonel Quaritch perished in human form. But he is resurrected as a Terminator version of an Avatar. Quaritch has a new mission to kill Jake Sully and his family because they are causing too many problems for RDA. He is turned into a recombinant  which is a Na’vi body that has his memories buried inside of the brain. He embarks on his journey with a band of fellow recombinants to take out Sully and hunt him down. 

Sully is very protective of his wife and kids like the patriarch of The Incredibles. He decides to seek safety once he learns that they are in danger.  There are many other clans in Pandora. But Jake understands that the water lands on the reef are the best place to seek refuge. Tonowari (Cliff Curtis) and his wife Ronal (Kate Winslet) are leaders of the Oceanic Metkayina clan who grant them permission to stay. The Sully family is from the land and know how to ride direhorses and fly winged creatures to travel. New challenges arise when they have to immerse themselves in the ocean. We are told with an omniscient voiceover that, “the way of water connects all things before your birth and after your death.” They now have to learn how to ride ILUS and befriend compassionate whale like Tulkuns who have the intellectual capacity for speech. The new precious currency being mined is a glowing liquid produced by the whales which puts them in jeopardy for survival. Dr. Ian Garvin (Jermaine Clement) and his partner decribe this serum is a valuable fountain of youth worth millions of dollars.

The visual effects and 3D scenes filmed underwater are stunning. James Cameron had the actors train with professional divers to master the technique. Sigourney Weaver was able to hold her breath for over 6 minutes while her co-star Kate Winslet  stayed under for over 7 minutes and broke Tom Cruise’s record.  The Sully children are the stars of this film as they undergo growing pains like middle son Lo’ak who falls in love at first sight when he watches in awe as Tsireya ( Bailey Bass) emerges from the sea. 

The themes of family bonds and what is a family are examined. James Cameron explained.“I had to figure out a way to get Stephen back into the story. His story is about family because he has this interesting relationship with the son. It is the son of his biological former self. Is that his problem?”

Sully’s children are ridiculed by the reef people for being Na’vi hybrids because they inherited some of his human DNA and traits which makes them feel more like misfits who don’t belong. The third act of the film which includes an homage to Titanic is where the stakes become dire and the danger all the protagonists face becomes harder to overcome. There used to be a cardinal rule in Hollywood that children and animals were always protected from harms way on screen. But successful franchises like the Hunger Games changed that mantra. Movies are a form of escapist entertainment. That is why Lin Manuel Miranda vowed to have a dead house resurrected in his Disney hit Encanto to empower the audience with happiness and hope. I won’t give anything away. But there are some decisions made by Spider that may grant the audience a feeling that he’s  a Trojan horse as he deals with his own inner conflict about who is his father and where his loyalties lie. The underwater joyride is what makes Avatar: The Way of Water a must see cinematic adventure.

Grade: B

Avatar: The Way of Water opens in theaters on December 16^th.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – Another Review. By Shani Harris

Chadwick Boseman was the larger than life energy force, who catapulted Black Panther into the pantheon of blockbuster Marvel movies. His tragic passing has shaped the future of the franchise, after it debuted in 2018, becoming a cultural phenomenon. Wakanda Forever begins by addressing the loss of King T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) who ruled over Wakanda and protected his subjects by embodying their savior as a Black Panther superhero. A line is crossed between the fictional world as the audience takes the sad journey on the funeral procession tributes with Princess Shuri (Letitia Wright) and Queen Ramonda ( Angela Bassett).

The spirit of Boseman is ever present on screen as we are presented with murals and an opening credit montage, which shows him as a symbol of strength and manhood. The death of T’Challa means that Wakanda has lost their all powerful protector and has been left vulnerable to attacks from the rest of the world, who wish to plunder their precious resource of Vibranium. The nation is forced to find new leadership as Queen Ramonda guides them on ways to navigate their path as they continue to heal as a nation.

A threat to their homeland arises as Namor ( Tenoch Huerta) is unveiled as a powerful mutant King, who rules an underwater nation called Talokan.. He initially emerges as a potential ally who controls his relm inspired by Atlantis. Namor shares the same goal with Wakanda to protect Vibranium from getting into the hands of global nations who want to weaponize the valuable mineral for mass destruction.

He invites Princess Shuri to take a tour of his realm and shares his origin story about the pains of witnessing colonialism during slavery. Namor is a 500 year old Mayan descendant, who understands the legacy of war and the urgency of preventing Vibraniam from falling into the wrong hands. He eventually presents Shuri with a threat that she will have to choose to work with his descendants or he will have no choice other than to consider Wakanda to be an enemy that he would vow to destroy.

Wakanda Forever director Ryan Coogler had an insurmountable task to face the death of Boseman by incorporating it into the storyline, while rewriting the script with Joe Robert Cole. Those are big shoes to fill with the absence of Chadwick as King. There are attempts to have characters portrayed by Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Danai Gurira and Martin Freeman to shape the narrative. The film has a long runtime of 2 hours and 40 minutes that doesn’t help when the storyline falters, especially whenever Freeman’s flighty character is on screen. Why is Princess Shuri so preoccupied with an outsider, when the existence of her own nation is in dire jeopardy?

Other unnecessary tangential storylines included a few times when Okoye was berated for being bald and called to question whether her complexion was ashy, until she is reassured with a Rihanna product placement reminder, that her Fenty foundation is the correct selection. The fact that Western beauty standards are projected on the venerable leader of the Dora Milaje is a big disappointment, because the depiction of Wakanda from the first film was to celebrate and uplift the descendents of African ancestry, to represent their beauty and promise of how the continent would have flourished without the horrific crimes of colonization. The love themes presented in the first Black Panther that highlight the relationships of King T’Challa and Nakia along with Okoye with her husband W’Kabi (Daniel Kaluuya) are fully abandoned. Okoye seems only focused on her role as a protector in this film and underdeveloped. The dynamic of her romance with her partner offered a different perspective that made her a three dimensional character that was not only utilized to be ridiculed for her appearance.

Angela Bassett looks regal on screen and does a good job in her role as Queen Ramonda, while the audience mourns with her and feels compassion for the passing of her son. She states in a chilling scene from Wakanda Forever. “I am Queen of the most powerful nation and my entire family is gone.” It is her maternal guidance that teaches us how to heal and engage in rituals to uplift the memory of ancestors who have passed. Unfortunately, Disney often relies too heavily on tragic tropes to force a main character to propel forward on their journey to maturity. Namor tells Princess Shuri. “My ancestors would often say only the most broken people, can be great leaders.” It feels at times as if the grief depicted on screen can be too much to bear when it is compounded with the death of loved ones. Letitia Wright tries her best to pick up the reigns with her role, but the sadness on screen is palpable throughout.

The underwater action scenes and the depiction of the fighting skills of the Talokan nation appear to be far superior to the Wakanda warriors, who mainly use their spears for protection. Namor’s legion of followers are formidable foes. The battle scenes are massive and the special effects allow you to be fully transported and immersed in the film. Oscar winning costume designer Ruth Carter’s work is another reason to be in awe of the intricate fabrics and regal attire that is shown on screen for this massive production. I spoke to John David Washington after I saw the film. Denzel Washington’s son told me that he believed Chadwick would have been proud of the sequel. It meant a lot to hear that critique after his father was responsible for mentoring Chadwick from when he was a student at Howard University.

Black Panther Wakanda Forever is a moving reflection for fans on the legacy of Chadwick Boseman, who was the gravitas and soul of this inspiring MCU saga. It was historic for a majestic Black superhero to exist in a world created by Oscar winner Hannah Beachler. The film lacks much of the hope that was provided in the first installment, but a glimpse of the future for the franchise is shown at the end credits.

Rating : 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is now in theaters.